He's actually a kaleidoscope. Young, old, funny, serious. A businessman, a clown, an extremely competant actor. Formally known as Herman, he now prefers to be called by his real name, Peter Noone.
     He looks young: in fact, is young and in front of a teen audience he acts it. Making faces and clowning around, you'd never believe that Peter is quite the serious businessman. Cunning and calculating, he turns his career over and over in his mind until he decides which way it will move best and then he wastes not time in speeding in that direction. And so far he's been right.

Follows Market

     From the Heartbeats to the Hermits, from "Hold On" to "The Canterville Ghost," Herman hits where the market is. With the British group craze at it's peak, with London the focal point of the young adult world, Herman donned a Cockney accent and sold a million records. With that peak now over, Herman's accent has become noticeably less Cockney and reverted back to his original Manchester accent.
     You can scream "phony" if you want, but the fact still remains that Peter Noone is smart and blessed with a considerable amount of foresight. The entire trick to show business longevity lies not especially in talent but in versatility and the ability to lay your finger on what the public is next going to buy.
     Entertainers who refuse to bend even slightly never last long because the market becomes saturated and the public demands novelty and freshness. This Peter knows - and knows well. He watches and gauges the public as a driver watches the white lines in the street. If you move over the double-line you're dead. If you disregard the public for long, your career is referred to in the past tense.
     Taking it from the top, Peter Noone is an actor. He began as an actor and those wise in such things predict that he will end up an actor. He got mixed up with the rest of it because in 1964 that's where the market was. In a youth club in Manchester, England, a boy nicknamed Herman got up on stage to sing a song with a group called the Heartbeats. What started out as a song became a whole new career.
     Almost immediately Herman became the center of attraction in the group. He was already an experienced stage actor and so it was with little trouble that his stage presence showed through and enabled him to establish spontaneous rapport with his audience. It was only natural then that the group change their name to read Herman and the Hermits and later shorten it simply to Herman's Hermits
    The decision to cut "Mrs. Brown" was one of the smartest recording moves ever made. The British could not believe that their American cousins would buy it and even Herman admitted that he would never dream of doing in England the things which won him a name in the U.S.

Clever Phony

     But the biggest shock was to come in the form of "Henry The VIII." Donning a thick Cockney accent, Herman recorded the song which caused the English to reel in laughter at the fact that Americans were buying such a "phony." It would be something like Frank Sinatra singing "Old Man River" with a Southern accent and selling it to the British supposing that they did not know the difference betwseen a Hoboken, New Jersey accent and a New Orleans drawl. But Herman knew what the American market was buying. He knew he could hit with a Cockney "Henry" and, or course, he was right.
     With the success of "A Hard Day's Night" paving the way, the next thing to do was to make a movie. Accordingly, Herman and his Hermits launched into "Hold On." It certainly was not the biggest box office smash the world has known - but it was not the biggest bomb either.
     Television offers from the top U.S. variety shows came the group's way, and picking and choosing carefully, Peter the businessman landed on just the right ones. He did his clowning and face-making and the girls did their screaming and Ed Sullivan did his best to shut them up during the commercials.

Hidden Below

     Making it big as an entertainer usually means being a hit in as many medias as your talents will allow and to as wide an audience as possible. Accordingly, Peter Noone decided that it was about time the world discovered that beneath all the amplified guitars and longish hair he had a very decent singing voice. He chose to demonstrate his vocal ability with the oldie, "Jezebel." It received a fantastic reception and Peter had proven his point. He could sing.
     It was about time for something else too - time that the public learned that Peter Noone was first an actor. So he left his Hermits behind and signed to play in the "Stage 67" segment, "The Canterville Ghost." He had already decided that he would be billed as Peter Noone for acting purposes.
     Now Peter, along with the Hermits, are in London filming "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter." The market having already changed, it's doubtful that "Mrs. Brown" will hold any resemblance to the group's first effort, "Hold On."
     He's proven his ability as an actor, a singer, a personality. If you still think that Peter Noone is a wet-eared kid with nothing going for him except an ability to make faces to a television camera, you're crazy